1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a single use lancet assembly which is substantially compact, yet effective for piercing a patient""s finger or other body part to obtain a blood sample. The single use lancet device is further configured to be substantially safe to transport and to ensure that subsequent uses of a contaminated lancet tip cannot occur.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lancets are commonly utilized instruments which are employed both in hospitals and other medical facilities, as well as by private individuals, such as diabetics, in order to prick or pierce a patient""s skin, typically on a finger of a patient, thereby leading to the generation of a blood sample which can be collected for testing. Because of the wide spread use of such lancets, there are a variety of lancet devices which are available for utilization by patients and/or practitioners in a variety of different circumstances.
For example, a typical lancet may merely include a housing with a sharp piercing tip that is pushed into the patient""s skin. More commonly, however, lancet devices, which house a piercing tip and/or a lancet, have been developed which effectively encase and fire the lancet into the patient""s skin, thereby eliminating the need for the person taking the sample to actually push the lancet tip into the skin.
Within the various types of specialized lancet devices, one variety are typically configured for multiple and/or repeated uses, while another category is particularly configured for single use, after which the entire device is disposed of. Looking in particular to the single use, disposable lancet devices, such devices typically include a housing which contains and directs or drives a piercing tip into the patient""s skin, and which is disposed of along with the used lancet. Naturally, so to make such disposable devices cost effective for frequent use, such devices tend to be rather simplistic in nature providing only a sufficient mechanism for firing, and not overly complicating the design so as to minimize that cost.
While existing single use devices are generally effective for achieving the piercing of the skin required for effective operation, such single use, disposable devices typically do not incorporate a large number of safety features to ensure the safe use and disposal of the device. For example, one primary area of safety which must be addressed with all lancet devices pertains to the purposeful and/or inadvertent reuse of a contaminated lancet. Unfortunately, most currently available single use lancet devices are configured such that after a use thereof has been achieved, it is possible for a patient to recock the device, thereby allowing for a subsequent, inappropriate use.
As a result, it would be highly beneficial to provide a single use lancet device which is substantially compact and disposable, can be manufactured in a substantially cost effective manner, and which nevertheless is substantially safe to utilize, affirmatively preventing re-use, once contaminated.
The present invention relates to a single use lancet device configured to pierce a patient""s skin and be useable only a single time, thereby preventing reuse of a contaminated lancet piercing tip. In particular, the present single use lancet device includes a housing having an open interior area and an access opening defined therein. The housing is preferably compact and includes a lancet disposed within its open interior.
Looking to the lancet, it is preferably of the type which includes a body and a piercing tip. It is the piercing tip which includes the pointed configuration structured to penetrate or pierce a patient""s skin for the drawing of blood. Moreover, the lancet is cooperatively disposed within the open interior of the housing such that the lancet may move between at least a cocked orientation and a piercing orientation wherein the patient""s skin is penetrated by the piercing tip.
Also operatively associated with the lancet is a driving assembly. The driving assembly is structured to move or drive the lancet, at least temporarily, into the piercing orientation from the cocked orientation. Preferably, however, the device is configured such that the cocked orientation is generally maintained until affirmatively released by a user. Along these lines, the present single use lancet device also includes an actuation button operatively associated with the lancet. The actuation button is structured to protrude from the housing, at least when the lancet is disposed in the cocked orientation, so as to be effectively actuatable. When the lancet is in the cocked orientation, the actuation assembly maintains the lancet in that cocked orientation, however, when it is actuated, such as by being pushed inward, the lancet is released from the cocked orientation and the driving assembly propels the lancet at least temporarily into its piercing orientation wherein the piercing tip protrudes through the access opening of the housing.
In order to ensure that lancet device can only be used a single time, the present single use lancet device further includes abutment structure cooperatively disposed between the housing and the lancet. The abutment structure is configured to prevent the lancet from moving into the cocked orientation after movement into the piercing orientation. Preferably, the abutment structure includes a shoulder element and a restrictor panel operatively associated with the lancet and the housing. In particular, the shoulder element is structured to pass over the restrictor panel when the lancet moves from its cocked orientation to its piercing orientation. Conversely, however, when a user attempts to move the lancet back into the cocked orientation after it moved into the piercing orientation, the restrictor panel abuts the shoulder element preventing further movement. As a result, movement of the lancet into the cocked orientation is prevented once the lancet has been used a single time, and subsequent uses of a contaminated lancet are prevented.